Fare Well Reformer, Mikhail Sergeyevich ... A Dominant Figure in World History in Curtailing Oppressive Communist Rule across Europe and Ending the 70-Year Cold War, the First Soviet President Sparked Fires of Reform That Later Overran His Vision

By Daniel Sneider, writer of The Christian Science Monitor|
The Christian Science Monitor, December 26, 1991 |Go to article overview

Fare Well Reformer, Mikhail Sergeyevich ... A Dominant Figure in World History in Curtailing Oppressive Communist Rule across Europe and Ending the 70-Year Cold War, the First Soviet President Sparked Fires of Reform That Later Overran His Vision

WITH sadness, anger, and flashes of defiance, Mikhail
Sergeyevich Gorbachev ends a momentous six and a half years at the
helm of his nation.

The West sees Mr. Gorbachev as a singular figure. But in his
role as unrequited Russian reformer, Gorbachev has trod a well-worn
path. From Czar Alexander II to Nikita Khrushchev, leaders before
him have broken their swords battling to prod the vast country
forward. They all met with what history has revealed to be the
futility of trying to save a dying system through reform.

"During my tenure, I have been attacked by all those in Russian
society who can scream and write.... The revolutionaries curse me
because I have strongly and conscientiously favored the use of the
most decisive measures.... As for the conservatives, they attack me
because they have mistakenly blamed me for all the changes in our
political system."

These words could have been written by Gorbachev - indeed he
said as much many times. But they were penned by another great
Russian reformer, Count Sergei Iulevich Witte, in his bitter
resignation letter as prime minister in 1906. Witte had saved
Nicholas II and his autocracy from war and revolution, only to be
discarded.
Decaying system

Like Witte, Gorbachev was called in to save a society in
collapse. The Russian empire was again weakened by foreign
adventures, culminating in the disastrous war in Afghanistan. And
underneath, the economic system was decaying, unable to meet basic
needs.

"Gorbachev took this country like my wife takes cabbage. He
thought that to get rid of the dirt, he could just peel off the top
layer of leaves. But he had to keep going until there was nothing
left." That is the assessment of Vitaly Korotich, who was
Gorbachev's designated spearhead in the campaign to reclaim lost
history as editor of the magazine Ogonyok.

Even before he took office as general secretary of the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in March 1985, Gorbachev described
his goal as the renovation of the socialist system. In a speech on
Dec. 10, 1984, he delivered his later famous watchwords deep
transformations in the economy and the whole system of social
relations,perestroika {restructuring} of economic
management,democratization of our social and economic life," and
"glasnost" (openness).

Gorbachev reduced fear in Soviet society and let a fresh wind
blow through Eastern Europe. But when those reforms reached their
limits - and they did so quickly - Gorbachev balked. The ultimate
assault on the Leninist state and its state-run economy was always
beyond his intent.

In much of this Gorbachev was following a path laid out by his
political sponsor, Yuri Andropov, who advanced from chairman of the
KGB to succeed Leonid Brezhnev as party leader in 1982. Andropov
was described by those around him as a closet liberal, a lover of
jazz who sought to bring socialist democracy to the Soviet Union.
But Andropov died in early 1984. Gorbachev had to wait more than a
year until the Brezhnev-prot, conservative stalwart Konstantin
Chernenko, came and went in similar fashion.

Gorbachev began with familiar themes of Andropov: the need to
restore discipline, to intensify production through technological
progress and innovations such as giving state-run enterprises more
freedom and workers salary incentives. These moves picked up the
reformist thread of Khrushchev, lost during the long years under
Brezhnev, which Gorbachev disdainfully referred to as "the era of
stagnation."

"Gorbachev did not have a clear plan of what kind of political
and social system must be created," says Fyodor Burlatsky, a former
speechwriter for Khrushchev, close aide to Andropov, and sometime
adviser to Gorbachev. "He came from our generation, from the 60s.
He had in mind what Khrushchev wanted but maybe more than
Khrushchev. He shared the ... feeling that everything that came
from the Stalinist system must be destroyed. …

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Fare Well Reformer, Mikhail Sergeyevich ... A Dominant Figure in World History in Curtailing Oppressive Communist Rule across Europe and Ending the 70-Year Cold War, the First Soviet President Sparked Fires of Reform That Later Overran His Vision

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